


Tim Drake Needs (& manages to get)  A Hug

by Moonlight_Howler



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: (at least he’s trying), Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Batfamily (DCU), Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Mute Cassandra Cain, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Tim Drake Gets a Hug, Tim Drake Has a Bad Time, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim Drake-centric, Tim is a mess, Whump, briefly mentioned cannon events, no beta we die like robins, some of these tags make it seem really happy, the others make it sound really dark and sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26966683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlight_Howler/pseuds/Moonlight_Howler
Summary: This work contain topics that may be triggering for some. Read The tags before reading.Tim attempts to take his own life, dick saves him, members of the batfam find out, they tell him to get help.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 4
Kudos: 121
Collections: Works good enough I will definitely reread





	Tim Drake Needs (& manages to get)  A Hug

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first written work for the fandom, here are somethings to keep in mind
> 
> 1) I’m an artist, I don’t usually write
> 
> 2) I don’t pay attention to half the shit going down in cannon
> 
> 3) I wrote this at like 1am? after a sudden burst of inspiration to write

Tim sat on the cold floors of the bat cave, tucking his head further into his body, and clamping his knees increasingly tighter into his chest. Dick and bruce where yelling at each other now, ‘because of your stupid decision’ his thoughts supplied him. Tears built in his eyes, threatening to make him sob harder, which would destroy his effort to keep his sobbing stifled. 

As bruce and dick continued to argue, he felt the body of someone silently sit down next to him, and lean their weight of him. Despite the urge to keep his head down, and avoid all eye contact, he quickly raised his head out of his arms to quickly glance at who was leaning on him. He was met with the familiar sight of blackbat. Cass noticed his quick glance,  
‘of course she did, she’s a bat, and a bat incredibly capable of reading body language’ and reached her hand up to rest on top of Tim’s head, while still leaning on top of him. The feeling of her weight on top of his was extremely comforting, and Tim found himself slowly leaning into the weight of her hand. 

The next 15 minutes felt as though hours where passing, and within of that time, Tim had been handed a cup of hot chocolate ‘probably from Alfred’ he assumed, as the eldest two where still fighting, no longer yelling, but still arguing with each other ‘over him’ his mind ever so kindly added, 

Fuck, he just wanted to forget the event that transpired only an hour ago- but in rationality, he doubted he’d ever forget them.

Tim lay there on his bed in the manor, as he decided, ‘I’ve had enough of this. Had enough of the loss, had enough of the deaths, had enough of the neglect, and so many other trails and tribunals life has thrown at me’. He lifted himself up from where he lay. As he started to think about the best options,  
The manor was to crowded at the moment, with Alfred, Cass, Dick, Damian, and Bruce it was to dangerous. If he went back to one of his safe houses, or his apartment, that would buy him some time. And then there was the final option: patrol, make it look like an accident. 

‘a malfunction in the grappling gun could work, but the bats would be skeptical’ his thoughts trailed off into a tangent of all the precautions the bats take with there equipment, when his brain supplied himself ‘what would it matter? I would be dead already, who cares, let them wonder’

“Tim?” a voiced asked. Tim raised his head, just slightly and made eye contact with bruce. He internally winced, preparing himself for the conversation to come.

“Tim, could you come over here?” with that Tim raised himself slowly up from his place in the floor, putting his now empty mug down on the floor. cass somehow managed to say to him something along the lines of good luck, and you’ll be ok, with only the tilting of her head.

As he crossed the floor of the batcave,  
‘this wouldn’t have happened if you could do something right finally.’ ‘he’s gonna take red robin away from you’ ‘look Tim, you’ve done it, your officially a failure’  
“bruce, I-“ he stifled a heavy sob “-I’m sorry I- I-‘  
he stuttered bruce moved forwards, and Tim felt himself tense up. Bruce wrapped his hands around Tim’s body incasing him in a hug. Tim finally let himself sob. 

“shhhh, its ok.” Bruce whispered, trying to calm the boy  
“but its not” bruce visibly grimaced at the comment, but quickly his face softened  
“you’re right, you’re not ok, but your safe now’ bruce was going to have the conversation now but, he decided against it. “come on, lets get you upstairs.” Tim pulled himself away from bruce’s grasp, before he was pulled back in and picked up in a bridle carry. Tim opened his mouth to argue, but no words came. He began to find himself leaning into Bruce’s body, when it occurred to him, “what about the capes?”  
Bruce understood, and answered Tim’s question, “its ok, we can get changed later”  
‘his going against one of his BIGGEST rules because of you! If you get caught! Its gonna be all you’re fault’ Tim’s mind ever so helpfully suggested.

Bruce brought Tim to his own room, and lay the boy down on the large bed, he sat down next to the boy, who was trying to make himself increasingly smaller. He laid his hand on top of Tim’s calf, Tim turned his head down to look at bruce, before darting into Bruce’s side. Startled, bruce lay his arms around Tim’s body, and slowly manuvered himself so his back rest agains the backboard, and Tim’s back laid against his pillows.

They lay there in silence, before Tim’s breathing slowly levelled out, indicating he was asleep. Even then, bruce didn’t leave.

Tim came awake, still wearing his red robin suit, but the gloves, belts and shoes had all been removed. As he woke he looked around the room, not recognising what room he was in, however recognising the familiar architecture of the manor. He let out a yawn. “good too see that you’re awake”  
“hey bruce..” Tim greeted uneasily, remembering the events that unfurled last night.

If bruce sensed the uneasiness in Tims voice he elected to ignore it, and decided to inform Tim that  
“Alfred said breakfast is going to be ready soon, you’ll probably want to get dressed and get down there before the others finish it all”

Tim immediately perked up with the announcement of breakfast, and he darted off to his room to get changed. As Tim changed, he thought about the events that occurred the previous night. Part of him regretted it, while the other part of him regretted he couldn’t do it right. Thoughts similar to the night prior refilled his mind ‘He’ll just throw you out’ ‘they’ll never trust you to be red robin again’ ‘heh. You couldn’t be trusted with robin, and now you’ll never be allowed to be red robin again’ which Tim tried so desperately to ignore, but he couldn’t bring himself to. he let out a sniffle ‘I’m crying? When did I start crying?’ 

After aTim changed and had calmed himself down from the burst of tears, he made his way to the kitchen. Upon entering, Tim found himself, the center of attention. And oh boy did he hate it, no one dared to speak, obviously scared that they would say something wrong. Tim silently sat down at the table, avoiding eye contact with everyone. He didn’t want to speak about anything that happened the night before, even though he knew he would be forced to talk about it later today. If not today, then very soon.  
“Master Tim?”  
With the mention of his name obviously spoken by Alfred, he raised his head. “there’s pancakes, if you would like some”  
Tims face softened into a light smile, “yeah Alfred, that’d be great”  
Alfred smiled gently back at him, and began to prepare Tim’s plate.

The kitchen was still filled with silence, and despite the tranquility of the manor being quiet in the morning for once, the tension was still high as Tim quietly ate his breakfast. After finishing his breakfast, Tim quietly disposed of his dishes in the sink, and quickly made his way out of the tense silence of the kitchen.  
“Tim” Bruce’s voice disrupted the silence as he made his way towards the exit “we need to talk”

Tim visibly tensed from the doorway of the kitchen, before loosening again, almost just as quickly as he tensed up. He gulped, “okay…”  
“where would you like to sit and have a chat?” bruce asked gently.  
“uhhh…. Your office or the personal library would be good” Tim nervously replied  
“ok, do you want me to meet you there or would yo like me to come with you?” bruce enquired  
“what ever suits you is fine”  
“come with you it is”  
Tim stuttered and opened his mouth to argue, when Bruce quickly interjected  
“Tim really, it suits me to come with you ok?”  
Tim nodded, and walked out of the kitchen slowly, feeling the other members of the household stare at him as he exited the kitchen, and as Bruce followed him out.

Bruce managed to end up walking along side Tim, he moved his hand to grasp Tim’s firmly. He lead Tim down the hallway, walking at Tim’s pace, as though not to make Tim increasingly more nervous than he already was. 

Tim sat himself down on one of the red sofas the office had, as bruce shut the door. “I know you probably don’t want to talk about this, but it’s a conversation we need to have”  
Bruce started. Tim looked at him and gently nodded, as bruce made his way to sit across from the boy, on the other sofa. 

“why?” Bruce asked. And Tim knew exactly what he was really asking ‘why did you attempt to take your life?’  
“I—I-“ Tim stuttered  
“Take your time” bruce reassured him.  
“I was just tired.”  
“Tired?”  
‘yeah Tim, someone who is just tired, isn’t suicidal.’ Tim sighed internally, and spoke again,  
“I’m just tired of everything life keeps throwing at me…” he trailed off letting the room fall into silence.

“I’ve just… lost so much. Even if I did eventually get those I’ve lost back, it doesn’t fix the pain I went through after losing it.” 

He didn’t explicitly say what he had lost, but bruce seemed to understand what he was hinting at. Bruce stayed silent, but prompted Tim to continue explaining.

“first it was my parents, then Steph, Kon, bart, you, dick replaced me with Damian-“ Tim continued, looking at bruce from time to time to read his reactions, most where the same look of sympathy he had been getting almost all morning, but not that last one, which bruce had grimaced at.

“what do you mean, he replaced you?” bruce inquired.  
“you don’t know?” Tim replied, voice suggesting that bruce should know. Bruce shook his head.  
“of course no one told you—“ he muttered  
“I didn’t become Red Robin on my own accord… I became Red Robin cause dick thought I was crazy after insisting that you where alive, and took robin away from me, replacing me with Damian.”

Bruce frowned at that. Tim immediately began to worry, scared that he said something wrong, when bruce spoke.  
“he shouldn’t have done that.”  
“thank you” Tim wasn’t quite sure why he responded with that, but bruce seemed to accept it.  
“did you tell him how you felt?”  
Tim shook his head, and quickly answered. “no”  
“did he ever explicitly say that he thought you where crazy?”  
“no, but it was pretty heavily Implied, say you became batman after the previous batman died, and the robin that served under them was insistent on thinking that the previous batman was still alive, what would you think” Bruce definitely wasn’t expecting that answer, but he did have to admit Tim made a point.

“and after the whole joker jr incident….” Tim continued before trailing off not knowing how to word his feelings, upon entering the silence he released ‘gosh I’m ranting.’

Bruces face showed an immediate expression of understanding after tim brought up the joker jr incident, which he remembered both it and its aftermath crystal clearly. It was back when Tim was rather new to being robin, about 1 year in, and jason’s death was still fresh in bruces mind. The joker had kidnapped tim, tortured and experimented on the boy, turning him into a mini joker. Afterwards tim had bright green hair until the boy had a panic attack over it, and bruce suggested they died it back to black, even after dyeing tim’s hair back to its previous colour, tim shattered multiple mirrors. Which Alfred knew better than to replace until Tim asked him too.

“Tim?”  
“yes?”  
“You should talk to someone”  
“I just talked-“  
“before you say I just talked to you, you should talk to someone,” he repeated, adding “professional”  
Tim sighed in acknowledgment.  
“Really you should, You could talk to dinah? Or I could do some research and you could pick who you want to see, its all up to you” bruce elaborated. Bruce watched in silence as tim sat quietly thinking. 

Tim’s thoughts flickered, ‘I don’t want to talk to anyone, I kinda just want to give up’ ‘but I should’ he found himself focussing on one thought. About a month ago, Tim had vaguely begun to contemplate suicide, as he sat on a large building late at night, he questioned wether he should just jump here and now. When Harley Quinn walked up from behind him, offered to get him a coffee, and asked if he wanted to chat. For some odd reason, Tim accepted harley’s offer. Harley left speedily and returned with coffee just as fast, And hey, after talking to harley, about both some vague descriptions of his feelings, and random shit, he felt better.

“Could I—er… See Harley?”  
Bruce blinked, confused to tim’s answer. “Harley as in Harley Quinn?”  
“uh…. Yea… she already knows our secret identities, and hasn’t released anything on the subject to the criminal underworld yet, and also she’s reformed.

Bruce thought about it for a few seconds ‘no he didn’t like the idea of trusting Harley Quinn with this’ ‘but it is tims suggestion’ before he came to an answer “Yes, and you’ll have to speak to a licensed therapist, at least a few times, after that?, you can see whoever you want to, and if that’s harley, that’s ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to follow me or chat to me I have:
> 
> an insta:  
> @moonlight_howler_ 
> 
> and a tumblr:  
> @its-moonlight-howler
> 
> (I’m more active on Insta, [I post art weekly])


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